Two new gold prospects, a board restructuring, a licence to manufacture medical marijuana and claims of Australia’s best rare earths intercept.
What do they all have in common?
Well, in some cases it sounds like an outstanding setup for one of those classic “four people walk into a bar” jokes. However, in this case, the answer is that they all led to ASX-listed companies making the cut in the prestigious Bulls N’ Bears Runners of the Week column.
And as per last week, for those of you who tuned in, we have two companies sitting on a 100 per cent price hike. So, we will go with the infallible, tried-and-true method of naming them in alphabetic order.
In that, we offer a hearty congratulations to Kula Gold for taking out top spot this week after touching 1.2c from a previous close of 0.6c, doubling its share price after a sampling program delivered two new gold prospects at its Marvel Loch project near the historic Western Australian mining town of Southern Cross.
Management says its new Stingray prospect has been defined by soil sampling hits for gold coincident with a circular-like feature – hence its naming after the roundish type of cartilaginous fish – that is visible on magnetic data about 2 to 3km in length and 1km wide.
Plans are in place to conduct a more extensive follow-up soil sampling program, with the aim of refining drill targets ahead of a scout reverse-circulation (RC) drilling program at the target.
Previous drilling at Kula’s second new Australiana-themed prospect, Boomerang, returned (get it?) a 1m hit at 2.6 grams per tonne gold from 54m, which is below the 93 million tonne kaolin deposit the company has already defined at the site.
Management is also working up three more gold prospects – 311, Nevoria North and G-Star – all within the same tenement as Stingray and Boomerang and in ground neighboured by some serious gold deposits.
As well as the mammoth Marvel Loch gold mine that sits only about 2km west of Kula’s tenement boundary, the Nevoria gold deposit boasts more than 600,000 ounces of gold, just 1km to the south of the company’s ground. And about 10km to the south-east, the Yilgarn Star gold deposit boasts about 2 million ounces of the yellow metal.
The name Southern Cross is synonymous with gold in WA and has often been referred to as part of the State’s renowned Goldfields region. However, according to the illustrious editor here at Bulls N’ Bears, the town actually sits within the Wheatbelt region.
Anyone who questions that can send their research to stevebutler@bullsnbears.com.au, who will (allegedly) respond to every email. Apparently, we can’t publish his phone number.
Once again, the perils of starting a company name with a letter in the back half of the alphabet has meant the difference between first and second place on this week’s list. Regardless, Tali Digital also recorded a 100 per cent share price hike after reaching 0.2c from a previous close of 0.1c during trading in the past five days.
However, the jump did not follow any ground-breaking announcements from Tali, which only reported the resignation of a non-executive director and thanked him for his “significant contribution and service to the company”. Management had previously presented a pretty straight-forward December quarterly report mid-way through January.
According to the company’s website, Tali is an Australian innovative digital health medical device company dedicated to making evidence-based and personalised interventions accessible, convenient and effective for children. Its flagship product is called “ReadyAttentionGo” and works as a digital training program designed to improve attention skills in children aged from three to 10.
Children in Australia went back to school recently, which may account for the increased interest in Tali and its product. Perhaps teachers are behind the latest share price lift as they are the ones who deal with attention issues in early education.
More than 2.6 million shares in the company changed hands on Wednesday. It goes to show that sometimes share prices just go up, or maybe some investors know more than we do.
Pharmaceutical company Bioxyne comes in at third place this week with a share price hike of more than 90 per cent, leaping from 1.1c to 2.1c during this week’s trading … and the reasons for this lift in stock seem way more obvious.
At the start of the week, Bioxyne revealed that its wholly-owned subsidiary Breathe Life Sciences had been awarded a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) license to manufacture medical cannabis. The company says it is also Australia’s first GMP licence to manufacture psilocybin and MDMA.
According to the Australian Government’s Office of Drug Control, MDMA and psilocybine, as preparations, have been listed under schedule 8 of the Poisons Standard for use in the treatment of certain mental health conditions since July last year.
Bioxyne says it intends to be the leading supplier of psilocybine and MDMA for clinical trials and authorised prescribers by 2025, focusing on partnerships with veteran groups, universities in Australia and abroad, trial sponsors and authorised prescribers in Australia.
More than 12 million shares in the company have changed hands this week following the licence announcement, including 7.8 million on Monday alone, which eclipses its previous trading record from the past 12 months of 5.3 million back in October.
Management says clinical use of MDMA shows promising results for dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, while results from early-phase clinical trials of psilocybin have suggested that a single or few sessions of psilocybin-assisted therapy can lead to significant and sustained reductions in depressive symptoms.
And no jokes about the company achieving a record high. Ah, too late.
Back to more familiar resources territory and this week’s final runners spot goes to Venture Minerals, which recorded an 87.5 per cent price hike from 0.8c up to 1.5c on the back of some truly impressive rare earths results.
The company recorded a 48m hit grading 3025 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 36m at its Jupiter prospect that forms part of its greater Brothers project in the Mid West region of WA.
Management hailed the headline result as Australia’s best-ever drill hit, when considering both the width and the eye-popping grade. But wait, there was more … and no, not steak knives.
Venture also recorded two additional 2m intercepts respectively going 10,266ppm and 20,538ppm TREO from the same definition drilling campaign, but from a different hole. Put simply, they are ridiculous grades.
And the company is probably right in saying its 48m hit would almost definitely be the highest combined grade and width clay-hosted rare earth hit in Australia.
The 2m breakdown of the section is incredible with a low of 844ppm TREO in the last 2m and a peak of 6281ppm TREO in the first few metres of the hit. Additional results were also outstanding, including a 60m segment at 1487ppm TREO and a second hole producing 16m grading 5399ppm TREO.
Like they say in the classics, nothing Ventured, nothing gained. And Venture has certainly gained a great deal of respect (and share price) with its latest rare earth results.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Michael Philipps
